Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1889 — How Opium Is Secured. [ARTICLE]

How Opium Is Secured.

Opium is gotten by cutting the capsule of the poppy flower with a notched iron instrument at sunrise, and by the next morning a drop or so of juice has oozed out. This is scraped off and saved by the grower, and after he has a vessel full of it it is strained and dried. It takes a great many poppies to make a pound of opium, and it goes through a number of processes before it is ready for the market. In a liquid state it looks like a dark strawberry jam. The wild rumor is borne across the seas, that Queen Victoria is exceedingly fond of tapioca pudding. Now let some one cable to London that Baby Mckee likes sugar.